Officials with California’s stem-cell institute Friday doled out about $24 million in research grants, with slightly more than half going to scientists in the Bay Area.

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine awarded nearly $23.2 million in grants to develop colonies of so-called pluripotent stem cells, which can form any type of tissue.

Some of that money will be used for work with human embryonic stem cells, which are highly controversial because the cells are derived from discarded embryos. Other portions of the money will go to develop colonies of induced pluripotent cells, where cells taken from skin or other tissue are coaxed into acting like human embryonic stem cells.

Another $1.1 million was awarded to research teams to begin planning how they will work together to develop stem-cell treatments for diseases or injuries.

Counting both grants, more than $13 million was given to Bay Area institutions. They included Stanford University; University of California-San Francisco; the J. David Gladstone Institutes; Buck Institute for Age Research; and Children’s Hospital and Research Center Oakland.